Mickey Mouseland is struggling to make headway with falling revenues from streaming TV and movies as well as Disneyland fun parks. Bog Iger, the go-getting boss who built up the empire on his first run as CEO buying in Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and most of 21st Century Fox in 2019, then retired garlanded in success. Only to be hauled back in as Disney’s star faded and promptly doubled his projected stay up to 2026. The Hollywood strike is not improving matters nor are aggressively high prices at the fun parks.
Iger, 10 February 1951 New York, has a turbo-charged chart with an Aquarius Sun opposition Pluto and trine Neptune giving him dizzying levels of ambition. His Neptune sextile Pluto are also on the legs of a Yod onto a high-vitality, super-enthusiastic Mars, North Node, Jupiter, Venus in Pisces – confidence, competitiveness, creativity aplenty all tied into the zeitgeist and public trends.
But even his grit and magical luck may not be enough to pull a rabbit out of the hat. He has tr Uranus rattling up his Sun Pluto opposition this year and next. With 2024 seeing tr Saturn damp his enthusiasm as it is conjunct his focal point Mars, Jupiter, Venus, into 2025. And tr Pluto will trine his Saturn and conjunct his Mercury for a tough slog and considerable strain in 2024/25.
His Second Stint chart, 20 November 2022, is jangled and jolted this year, disappointed in 2024 and may be forced into a sharp change of direction or decision in 2025.
Disney, 16 October 1923, a Sun Saturn in Libra with a creative, money-making Water Grand Trine of Jupiter in Scorpio trine Uranus trine Pluto – will have some luck over coming months but is in for a panicky 2024 as failures loom large with tr Neptune opposition the Mars; and a dead-halt Solar Arc Mars opposition Pluto in 2025.
Bob Iger may wish he had stayed retired.
In the U.S., the people that are predominantly having and raising children right now, are in the red, conservative states. In the blue states, the people having the most children are Latin American immigrants, who are Catholic and traditional, and Muslims, who live in the 7th century. Disney going “woke” was fatal to their bottom line. Disney films are produced for children and all of these woke themes and productions are a huge turn off to people raising stable & traditional families. The blue and purple haired lesbian couple in Boston who adopt are in the minority as far as raising children. Or the gay males who harvest a child via IVF for example. Disney made an error in pandering to the minority, thinking the majority would jump for joy at gay cartoons kissing each other. Ultimately, people want to see themselves reflected in their entertainment.
Thanks Marjorie. So interesting to look at these old established film companies, and see what challenges they face now. I hadn’t realised that the Disney company will be 100 years old in October!
There are some intriguing links between Disney, Iger, and Ron de Santis.
The nodal axis for all three is in Pisces and Virgo. I associated Pisces and Neptune with film and fantasy – and Disney’s movie fantasies have had widespread cultural influence for decades. Virgo is detail, of course, but I’ve noticed how it can be associated with style, and a surprising number of actors too. Many classic Disney ‘heroines’ are sweet and pure, one aspect of the maiden Virgo archetype? Saturn in Pisces is transiting all the mutable planets present in these charts, highlighting history, and longstanding alliances. And perhaps some kind of sacrifice must take place?
Disney’s Nodes 10 Virgo/Pisces, Iger’s are 19 Pisces/Virgo, De Santis 26 Virgo/Pisces. A sensitive point might be reached when Saturn is mid Pisces. It will square De Santis’ fantasy prone Neptune at 15 Sagittarius. And be conjunct Iger’s Jupiter/Mars at 13 and 15 Pisces. Disney’s Uranus is 14 Pisces. In the week of the Aries Solar Eclipse next April, Mars and Saturn align at 14 Pisces. September 2025 has a Lunar Eclipse at 15 Pisces, maybe bringing things to a head, finally.
Just for fun, I looked at Walt Disney’s natal chart. 5th December, 1901. His Sagittarian Sun, 12, is conjunct Uranus 16. Very inventive, and conjunct De Santis’ natal Neptune, while squaring Iger’s Pisces planets. They oppose Pluto at 17 Gemini. His ascendant is 25 Virgo, MC 24 Gemini. So it looks like Walt Disney himself, in essence, is also involved in this mutable web. A Disney ‘Fantasia’ moment? I imagine Marjorie’s descriptions of much mutability as ‘a windmill in a storm’! Or the spooky Walpurgis Night storm sequence, Night on a Bare Mountain, from Fantasia.
Great research as always Jane.
Just one thought about those princesses – they always need to be rescued – another Pisces / Virgo thing. Trying to remember if they were all like Cinderella / Snow White and subservient doing the sweeping, cleaning and housework!
Ha! yes, you’re right GD. Tinkerbelle in Peter Pan had a bit more spirit though. But then, she wasn’t human. There’s a lot of sadness and fear in some of the early Disney classics – Bambi, obviously, and the lonely man who makes Pinnochio, who wants to be a real boy. And on. Walt Disney’s BML is in Scorpio, with Mercury 27 Scorpio. Some of that darker side emerges in figures like the Wicked Stepmother in Snow White. But then the studio, and Disney himself, eradicated all the darkness in the original Mary Poppins book…..turning her into a sugary sweet and rather Virgoan stereotype. She was a Virgo archetype I think, but complete with a darker and more mysterious side.
Florida had its highest number of tourists ever in 2022 https://www.visitflorida.com/about-us/#:~:text=About%20VISIT%20FLORIDA&text=Florida's%20tourism%20industry%20was%20responsible,over%201.7%20million%20Florida%20jobs.
Orlando is number 1 for conventions in the nation. Chicago is second by some way.
Disney is building a $2billion park in Oklahoma called Americana https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4107722-americana-themed-amusement-park-the-size-of-disneys-magic-kingdom-is-coming-to-oklahoma/
The October 14, 2023 solar eclipse at 21 08 Libra will be conjunct Disney’s Sun-Saturn conjunction and square its Moon. Also trine Igor’s Sun and trine Saturn and Mars in his 2nd term chart. So likely a significant period for him and Disney.
Maybe people just do not have the money for entertainment like they used to.
The Disney chart with that Sun-Saturn in Libra and Capricorn moon, along with Pluto in Cancer really describes how Disney has always tried to project a nice, family image with the children’s films and family theme parks. There’s a paternalistic viewpoint in there of imposing their values e.g. the no-alcohol rule in Euro Disney back at the beginning.
For years they also generated a decent proportion of their income through a creativity-free, risk-averse, hording strategy of repeatedly rereleasing their films and keeping them off TV and then home video etc. That model has now morphed into retelling the classic cartoons as live action versions and releasing endless sequels/spinoffs of Star Wars and now Indiana Jones. That may be the Jupiter and Venus in Scorpio eking out the last drop.
Oh that’s interesting about the Sun/Saturn Libra and Capricorn Moon. Did you know that Disney own towns? Look up ‘Celebration, Florida’, Disney’s master-plan, wholesome family town. It was built in 1995. All the homes looked like twee, cosy nostalgic style, residents had to abide by the rules of having ‘family values’ and display images of Mickey Mouse in their windows. A Stepford Wives’ utopia. The ads said: “There is a place that takes you back to that time of innocence. A place where the biggest decision is whether to play Kick the Can or King of the Hill. A place of caramel apples and cotton candy, secret forts and hopscotch on the streets.” But like all things sugar-sweet and idyllic, the gloss inevitably wore off following an economic recession, a murder, a suicide and countless foreclosures. All that glisters, etc.
Oh my! Very Stepford. Nice find VF.
That Sun-Saturn Conjunct at 22 Libra was squared by the Pluto-Saturn Conjunction at 22 Capricorn in 2020 so it is perhaps no coincidence that Disney stated to experience fundamental challenges from that date. Solar Arc Pluto in the Disney chart conjoining the the Natal Libra planets just adds potency to that impact. I always have found Disney a rather sinister organisation so no surprise to find a Pluto-Mars opposition in its chart or that it was founded under similar astrological influences as the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch chart of 8 November 2023. This is a company that is comfortable authoritarianism in all its forms. Nor is it surprising that Hitler and Goebbels were huge admirers of Disney. The fact the company has ostensibly gone “woke” does not comfort me at all since it seems to part and parcel of the process whereby traditional progressive liberalism has been hijacked and is being made over into a new form of corporate totalitarianism to oppress the majority of humanity.
Apologies the date for the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch should read 1923
Hugh – as a child I came to prefer the Eastern European animations my generation grew up with to those of Disney. There was a certain surrealism to them that appealed to me. Besides, I never had any desire to be a Disney princess condemned to a future as a wife in a pink castle with a boring Prince Charming and reckoned the shine would soon wear off after a while.
Disney is another company that has shown the truth of the adage “go woke, go broke.” The various vociferous groups promoting the woke ideology have very little, if any, support from the majority of the population. Clearly shown by the very poor reception/income of the latest Disney releases.
Will Disney move DisneyWorld away from Florida?
Seems like a terrible time with DeSantis
They have too much development and investment there in Orlando to abandon it; the Disney complex is massive. But they have cancelled over $1 billion in new investment there. They’ll wait DeSantis out.
I’ve read that tourist business is declining already in Flori-DUH because of DeSantis’ extremism and idiotic “anti-woke” campaign. Many conventions have cancelled while many regular visitors, like my husband and me (we made 10 visits there over two years while we were looking for a boat) and other progressives, are actively boycotting the state and have stopped buying from Florida vendors in protest. So many Florida businesses are dependent on the spillover from Disney and other tourist attractions and should soon start hollering about how his policies are hurting their bottom line